Troubleshooting for Laptops: Video

Video troubleshooting guide on the Ubuntu community wiki.[1]

This list is highly incomplete, and will be heavily edited in the coming weeks.

Problem: Display doesn't look right. Screen is black.

Check for RAM.

1. Turn laptop off and check for RAM.

No RAM? Add some. See here. [http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Laptop_Memory ] RAM present?

Attach the laptop to an external monitor.

Looks OK? Remove and replace display. See instructor. Do we want instructions here?

Doesn't look OK? Ask instructor what to do.

Problem: Display divided, filled with lines or textures, has unusually large letters at login, or otherwise looks wrong.

Solution: Attach the laptop to an external monitor.

Looks OK? The display in the laptop is faulty. Ask your instructor what to do. (Do we want to include instructions on how to remove and replace the display?)

Doesn't look OK?

Software problem. Refer to wiki FAQ. [2].

1. Determine what video card is in the machine.

Open BIOS to do this.

NVidia--Download the needed driver if you know how. If you don't know how, put a piece of masking tape on the top of the machine indicating that the video driver probably needs to be downloaded.

--Did you change anything immediately before the problem started? If so, undo the change and then try the device again.

Use foo to check the device. (Foo = Ubuntu's equivalent of Windows Device Manager. Is this a legit step? Outline how to use foo to check this device.)